Top Moments In The Career Of The Ultimate Warrior

Last night the wrestling world lost a legend, as The Ultimate Warrior passed away at the age of 54. He is survived by his Dana and two daughters. Warrior was a former WWE Champion and a two-time Intercontinental Champion. He was a one of a kind, larger than life character inside the squared circle. We will now take a look back at the top moments in the career of The Ultimate Warrior.

1) WWE Debut: Warrior made his WWE debut on October 25, 1987 against Terry Gibbs on edition of Wrestling Challenge. He came down to the ring walking with no entrance and shook the ropes and went to the turnbuckles once he entered the ring. During the middle of the match on the upper left screen, Warrior cut an inspirational promo telling fans to jump on his back and come along for the ride. Warrior used the power press slam and splash to squash Gibbs in his debut.

2) Winning the Intercontinental Championship for the first time: Summerslam 1988 took place on August 29 from Madison Square Garden in New York City as Intercontinental Champion, The Honky Tonk Man was scheduled to defend his title against Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake. The challenger was unable to compete that night and was looking for a new challenger and was willing to defend the title against anyone. After a few moments, Warrior’s music hit and the crowd exploded as he ran to the ring. 31 seconds into the match, Warrior won his first singles title of his career.

3) “Crash The Plane” Promo: The one thing Warrior was known for very well were his inspirational promos. The biggest match WWE could make in 1990 was Warrior vs Hulk Hogan. “The Hulkster” was the star of the WWE and the Heavyweight Champion of the world and Warrior was the Intercontinental Champion and they were going to square off at Wrestlemania VI. In the buildup to the match, Warrior cut my favorite promo in his career in the build to the match.

4) Winning the WWE Championship vs Hulk Hogan At Wrestlemania VI: This was the biggest match in the WWE since Hogan beat Andre the Giant at Wrestlemania III in 1987. Hogan and Warrior were to battle in the main event of Wrestlemania VI at the Skydome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in a title vs title match as Hogan was the WWE Champion and Warrior was the IC Champion. At this time you had never seen a babyface vs babyface main event at a Wrestlemania. In front of over 67,000 Warrior defeated to Hogan to the win the title and was the first person to ever defeat Hogan clean in WWE. The passing of the torch took place after the match ended as Hogan gave Warrior the belt and then hugged.

5) Wrestlemania VII Match vs “Macho Man” Randy Savage: This is the one match from Warrior’s career that everyone forgets for some reason. He had lost the WWE title to Sgt. Slaughter at the January 1991 Royal Rumble due to interference from Savage. The match at Wrestlemania VII was where the loser to had to retire from the WWE. In what was in my mind the best match of Warrior’s career he defeated Savage in an epic match.

6) WCW Debut: At this time Warrior hadn’t been seen since the middle of 1996 when he parted ways with the WWE. WCW was starting to lose “The Monday Night Wars” to WWE and needed something to them some momentum. So in August of 1998, Warrior made his WCW debut interrupting a promo being done by Hogan. This was by the far the best promo he did in WCW and the last great promo Warrior cut in his in-ring wrestling career.

7) 2014 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony: Warrior was the first person to be announced into the 2014 WWE Hall of Fame. People were speculating how he was going to be and what he was going to say. For most of his 40 minute speech, he stayed composed and delivered a very good speech. He came out arm in arm with his two daughters and at times during his speech, talked about how much he cared and loved his family. There were a couple moments where you can tell he was disappointed in how he was thought of in his career, but you can tell how much he loved his career and the fans.

Let us know your thoughts and if there is anything else you would include.

About Steve Muehlhausen

Steven was a featured UFC columnist for Bleacher Report and a writer for MMASucka.com. He was also the host of the MMA show "The Fight Club Chicago" which aired for three years at various websites. You can email Steve at stevemuehlhausen@yahoo.com.